If I counted right, Wasteform from New York area are the millionth and first death metal band from USA performing brutal, slamming and heavy-as-an-elephant kind of squalor. The truth is that there is a fucking massive load of this style of death metal available, so are Wasteform just a pile of fecal matter or a barrel of nuclear waste?

Somewhere in between the two, but above average, definitely. How bloody unique can you sound when playing this kind of stuff? Yeah, not very, but Wasteform manage to sound more individual than many. Surely, the death metal of Wasteform is close to Suffocation's; heavy palm-mued riffage meets fast tremolo playing. As usual for NY death metal, it definitely has got that hardcore edge to it. And no, Wasteform aren't one of those emotional "As I Fucking Die" type of bands. The slamming bass is mixed pretty up, making it sound flapping, but it still submits heaviness, too. Interesting effect, definitely sounding individual. The guitar tone is truly ripping and rusty, very powerful, with occasional squeaks that I happen to love to death. Snappy drumming, snappy snare drum sound, heavy kick drums. The pace inexorably fluctuate from fast blasting to slower, upper body banging speed, sometimes with loads of groove injected to it. The vocals are low growling (thankfully, not that stupid pig grunt), usually tin hat you'll-need-the-booklet vein, and there are some shouts and screams spicing the things up, as well as some effected vocals. The lyrics deal with warring societies and human brutality.

The structure of the album is quite peculiar. The album opens with an instrumental, but it's still brutal NY death metal. Another instrumental, 'Of Blind Consequence...', begins with tranquil guitar work, somewhat reminding me of later Death-style stuff, just like another instrumental, 'In the Shadows of Resurgence'. These instrumentals are good, combined seamlessly to "proper" songs. The guitar riffs are actually memorable, not the least because of the hardcore element I think. There's also some atmospheric ambient soundscapes, e.g. 'Faith Is Dead' with its church bells, baby cry and such, and the fully ambient closer 'Indulgence Divergent Senses'. Again, it makes this album a little bit distinctive from the enormous mass of brutal death metal albums.

This sophomore album from this rather young (well, maybe not so young anymore, hehe) is fucking headbangable stuff. This should captivate any NY slammin', heavy-slappin' death metal fanatic, I believe. A nice discovery, if not something truly idiosyncratic and new.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/05/2007 21:36